Clacton Shopping Village has just put up the ‘House Full’ signs after leasing its final unit this month and is on course for a second successive year of record footfall and sales.
Its 2022 footfall hit a best-ever 1,530,544, almost 20,000 up on the previous best, pre-pandemic 2019, the equivalent of 17 full Wembley Stadiums and the mall continues to buck national shopping trends.
In January shopper numbers were up 3% on 2022 and sales grew by a third to over £1.5m while February was even better at Clacton with shoppers increasing by 5% to over 113,000, average spend up 27% and trading up across all sectors.
Jason Pye, director of Aletheia Real Estate, which delivers the placemaking and marketing for Clacton Shopping Village, said: “Clacton Shopping Village is a remarkable success story at a difficult time for retail.
“After a major revamp in 2016, footfall doubled and grew steadily until the pandemic and we’re now pleased to be comfortably ahead of those previous highs.
“The place is buzzing so it’s great to announce that the Shopping Village is fully let with all the units here taken and very positive footfall and sales figures.
“We’re especially glad to welcome Little’Uns, another local independent store, to the Shopping Village. Our role in helping businesses start up and grow has been important and we have seen shops like Little’Uns establish themselves and go from strength to strength.
“The shopping village plays a major part in the economy of the town and surrounding area with over 250 people employed here in what is a real shopping hub.”
The man responsible for filling the units is Charles Dring, of London-based CHD Property, who has praised the vision and bravery that has created a shopping centre that fits people’s current needs.
He said: “Some very bold decisions have been taken in the last 10 years, including a major redevelopment in 2016 to transform what was a factory outlet into the versatile and appealing offer we now see.
“We have worked very closely as a core team for the past five years to develop the outlet, value and local offer blend.
“This now includes the only JD Sports clearance store in the UK, an M&S Factory Outlet and value in the shape of Home Bargains as the three anchors of the shopping village.
“The catering offer is quirky but perfect for the location with national names like Costa, Subway and Greggs trading their socks off alongside a more conventional local café.
“Clacton absolutely hits the nerve of what its market wants – we’ve just put a local retailer in and what they’re excited about is the quality of the management and of the centre itself.
“It shows the strength of a really well run, well managed centre with high standards of maintenance, marketing and delivery – it’s a very good case study for institutional ownership and the benefits it can bring.
“It is driving people into Clacton from outside and can benefit the whole town so it’s hats off to a great job.”
The drive-in centre boasts a mix of high street names and local businesses like their newest tenant, Little’Uns, a babies and children store run by local mum of two Gemma Veale.
She already had a smaller outlet in the town but said: “We ended up outgrowing our original unit and expanding from just myself to a team of seven members of staff which has been fantastic.
“It was a gamble but it’s paid off – people will always have babies and need baby items.”
Leisure clothing brand Cotton Traders has also upsized to a larger unit and Drew Liddle, Cotton Traders head of operations, said: “Clacton Shopping Village has been one of our top performing outlets since re-opening post lockdown and has continued to perform with positive sales growth.
“We have invested heavily into our Clacton store following the successful overall performance of the shopping village and expect to see this success continue.”
The Gift Company and surf scene-inspired retailer Salt Rock are other recent arrivals at the retail centre with its mix of big names and local businesses like Kennedy’s Furniture and Heavenly Coffee and Cakes.
Cassie Harrison, assistant manager at discount department store Choice, said: “There’s been a huge improvement in footfall and with new stores opening up and the Village filling up there are even more people shopping.”
At Pavers shoes manager Laura Chancellor said: “Footfall here is really good and we have doubled our takings from 2019 so our figures are really going through the roof.”
